Criteris correcció_FF Guardia

Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia

Source A

Source B

Questions:

1. What kind of source is A? (2 points)
   (4 lines maximum and justify it)
   It is a iconographical source, you can see a picture about the Ferrer i Guardia….
   It is a primary source, contemporary of the facts) but in this case it was not done by someone who experienced or witnessed the event in question. An execution is not a public act.
   Public, it was published in an Italian newspaper
   Political meaning, how an innocent- Ferrer I Guardia- could be condemned and a demonstration against his assassination.
   
   
   
2. Explain who Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia was, his importance and his relation with those "revolutionary" facts?. (6-7 lines) (2 points)
   
   Ferrer I Guardia was an anarchist,a teacher, a pedagogue  and the founder of the rationalist ‘Modern School’ (La Escuela Moderna). He was convinced that the only way to regenerate society was through a new system of education:  free from all dogmas and systems whether they be religious, political, nationalistic, republican or what you will..and of course against ““Letters go in with blood,”.
   You must remember that nearly 70 percent of the Spanish population was illiterate at the turn of the century.
   F. i G., in collaboration with Anselmo Lorenzo and others founded Solidaridad Obrera. Some years it was to become, as the organ of the C.N.T, the best-known Spanish anarchist newspaper
   He was arrested in September 1909 in the wake of the popular and violent protests in Catalonia against Spain’s highly unpopular war against Moroccan tribesmen.
   Those events were known by the name of “the Tragic Week”.
   
   
   
3. How was seen the execution of Francesc Ferrer i Guardia in other countries? Have a look at the newspaper (source A) (6-7 lines) (2 points)
   His execution was considered an assassination done by the capitalist classes (the church, opposed to this kind of schools, the King) and the Spanish government.
   (Also by Catalan bourgeoisie, la Lliga, as you can reading  the poet Joan Maragall opinion against  F. F i G.  execution)
   The supposed protagonist of the tragic Week suffered a summary execution by the Army, F I G case and others, to the abhorrence of the European left as you can see in this newspaper
   
   
4. Explain the meaning of this paragraph "called to protest against the killing of Francesco Ferrer I Guardia, the Spanish educator recently executed in Barcelona as the leader of the revolutionists" (which were the facts, what happened, what it refers to)(7-8 lines) (2 points)
   F I Guardia  was arrested in September 1909 in the wake of the popular and violent protests in Catalonia against Spain’s highly unpopular war against Moroccan tribesmen.
   Ferrer I Guardia was considered, by the government, as the “author in chief of the popular rebellion and he was condemned (in a military trial- Court martial-) and executed by a firing squad in Montjuic Castel, as you can see in source A
   He was just the scapegoat used by the government and the Church to finish the rebellion.
   The Tragic Week: soldiers – reservists- were called again by the Army for going to Morocco and fight against the tribes who inhabited this area, they did not have money enough to pay for not going to Morocco (the blood quota). They were poorly and badly equipped, and that means that a lot of them were killed for those reasons. The consequences: if they died, their families received nothing, if they were injured, any economical or human help also.
   This “blood quota” was the main reason for popular discontent with both the new imperialism (after 1898) adventure and the political system backing it.
   The blood quota: paid exclusively by those too poor to buy their way out of military service (only poor young people had to do it).
   
   
   
5. Explain the army system of "quintes" and its relation with the Tragic Week of July- August 1909. ( 6-7 lines) (2 points)
   The “quintes” system was the way young men did the military service: 1/5 had to do it, but:
   If they had money enough, they could pay for not doing this service, or pay some other young boy for being their substitute.
   In that sense, the quintes was considered a “blood quota” paid exclusively by those too poor to buy their way out of military service (only poor young people did it).
   This system was an unjust system of conscription that subjected the working classes to involuntary and inhumane servitude while permitting the middle and upper classes to purchase their way out of service.
   In the summer of 1909, the government went down in flames during the Tragic Week, a bloody anti-conscription uprising in Barcelona, triggered by a call-up of troops to fight in Morocco, most of those troops were men married, old soldiers – reservist-with the military service done and who now had to go to Morocco (if they could not pay the sum for not going to the war)
   
   

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To improve your Knowledge:

• Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia (enllaç)
• Documents (enllaç)